windows firewall: is it good enough?

J

jarthel

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 24, 2001
Messages
371
I've been using trendmicro's firewall (the one that came with internet security) but I somewhat feel that this software is a hog/bloated.

I have setup the Trendmicro firewall to manually prompt me so I can approve any network activity that's is not in the "approve" list. It seems Windows firewall has similar features.

any feedback on Windows firewall is much appreciated.

Thank you

PS. I'm talking about Windows Firewall as found in Vista. :)
 
Jay_oasis said:
its pretty poor as it doesn't block outgoing connections.
Click to expand...

if you look under "administrative tools", there's an entry for windows firewall with advance settings.

I can create inbound/outbound rules.
 
It's debatable whether blocking outbound connections is really very useful (if you have malware trying to make outbound connections, then you have malware already) but Vista's will do it, yes. It's a pretty good firewall, though - it won't necessarily meet everyone's needs, but for home use I don't see the need to use anything else (and if you do need more, then you're probably looking for a hardware firewall anyway).
 
Mithent said:
It's debatable whether blocking outbound connections is really very useful (if you have malware trying to make outbound connections, then you have malware already) but Vista's will do it, yes. It's a pretty good firewall, though - it won't necessarily meet everyone's needs, but for home use I don't see the need to use anything else (and if you do need more, then you're probably looking for a hardware firewall anyway).
Click to expand...

I generally agree with this poster

If you've got malware in your system already it can usurp the firewall thus the usefulness of outbound filtering is limited. Windows firewall does just fine, imo.

I will digress from that a bit though due to Vista, because modifying the Firewall can only be done with admin, the malware will have to ask for admin, and since stealing personal data can be done without admin (all except sending it out through the firewall) the outbound filtering can be the last line of defense. In WinXP it doesn't really matter becuase the process can silently gain admin through the account and thus modify any firewall programs at will.
 
been using vista firewall since i got operating system and have had zero problems.Ithink the router has one to.
 
I personally think it's fine.... I do have a hardware firewall as well, but the Vista firewall seems to be rather effective...
 
I let the router handle the firewalling, along w/WFW for the odd thing that might happen.
 
Unless you have a specific need for something else, Vista's firewall will do fine. Like others, I've relied on it alone for half a year and have had zero problems thanks to it. It probably recieves much more attention than your average 3rd party firewall software, so it likely has less bugs and vulnerabilities as well, since it is used by so many people.
 
I've had the vista firewall block outbound connections before, but you just click Unblock when the thing pops up and you'll never have to do it again.
 
It works pretty well, but it's good to have a router with built-in firewall as a backup ;)
 
Heh without MD5 checks and outbound monitoring you will never find out you got the malware and will continue happily sending your personal data to the world.

My Vista box got infected in 3 months while my XP has run trouble free for 3 years. Vista didn't have a personal firewall, only built in one.
 
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